In the interest of total completeness (and because other people will have this problem) I have written down a list of the crystal shapes and what number they are on the slider -- the slider moves so quickly that it's easy to miss them.
Here they are:
Slot 1 -- tear drop
Slot 2 -- single spire
Slot 3 -- double spire, short, close together
Slot 4 -- fox ears
Slot 5 -- engagement ring
Slot 6 -- multiple spikes
Slot 7 -- double spire, tall, close together
Slot 8 -- single spire, angled top

So using these (admittedly strange) descriptions, the puzzle is solved this way: (note the console I'm talking about with buttons is UNDER the static view screen)

Red multiple spikes (hit leftmost button on console)
Light blue double spire, short -- close together (hit next button to the right on the console)
Yellow single spire -- angled top (hit next button on the console)
Green single spire -- angled top (hit next button on the console)
Dark blue single spire (hit last button on the console)
Then hit the middle button on the console.

To get the telescope working -- you must go up in the chair and look at the viewer in close-up (magnifying glass). The thing that seems to turn the crystal viewer on is pushing the button on the top right of the telescope console (looks like there's a lighthouse on the button). When you push this, you'll see the light become bright orange and you'll hear static starting on the crystal viewer. When you get out of the chair and look at the crystal viewer, you'll now see static on the view screen there.

Hope this helps.|

BillyBob: I deleted all but my first and last save and the game "loosened up" and ran a lot faster. I haven't been able to figure out where the pictures taken with the "camera" are located but that's probably because they are associated with the individual saves (my guess) and that would help to account for the size of the saves.

Jenny on how to delete saves: You don't have to go into the computer to delete games, --just go to "load" in the options. The middle option (I'm pretty sure it's the middle, but it's labelled anyway) is to "delete", so you just highlight a save and click that. There will probably be a box asking it you want to delete it.

Skippidy: I just copied my savegame files to another directory as CES had suggested. I'd hate to DELETE something I'd like to use again later.
However, the advice was good. Things move faster with less savegames. Jenny's advice is good for deleting saves, but there are faster ways to do it using Windows Explorer. But, stick to what you know and are comfortable with.